AliensRL has too long lingered in the shadow of it’s older cousin. Time to resume active development, for among all of ChaosForge roguelikes, this is the one with the most potential. The 0.8.2 release brings you several notable changes, and despite that is just a stepping stone on what AliensRL can become with your support!

Read below for details or check the forum for the ChaosForge announcement. Start downloading from the downloads section now, and don’t forget to come back and donate if you like it and would want to see further development!

The most obvious change is the completely rewritten level generator, which not only produces much more interesting levels to explore, but also gives every tower a distinctive style. To compliment the generator, several new features were added, such as glass walls that you can see through and a basic terminal implementation.

The terminals themselves are a start of the implementation of a very antcipated feature. Along with them come the first possibilities of hacking — a hero with some technical skill (boosted by a few multi-tools) can now power down proximity doors, locate elevators or even restore light to levels that are dark! Even broken elevators can be fixed if you have the right skills and equipment.

The equipment section was standarized as well as expanded. Several consumable items have been added, among them the forementioned mult-tools, armor packs (that can fix your armor which does degrade now), a few medical items (stimpacks!) and even a portable sentry turret!

To go with the new equipment we upgraded and streamlined the interface. Items now operate on user modifiable quickslots, general game options have been moved to a game menu, running is now SHIFT+direction, SPACE for using elevators and closing doors and several other tweaks have been added, some of them forshadowing the changes to come!

The arsenal has also been severly augmented, by two new major weapons — the 5.56 ammo weapons which serve as middle ground between 9mm and pulse weapons, and the eagerly awaited flamer (which is a bit overpowered now, so take advantage of this :). Additionaly several variants of the existing weapons are to be found. Oh, and everything can be now destroyed (with the right firepower).

The game now runs in pseudo-console by default, but die-hard-ASCII fans will be happy to learn that the same executable can run in standard console by running with the -console parameter or editing you config.lua.

AliensRL 0.8.2 has just left Beta phase and is being prepared for release! Expect a release somewhere during the next two weeks! While we still are working on the major features we wanted to post a progress version to hopefully reestablish interest in AliensRL and bring in more people willing to contribute ideas.

So now you can either wait patiently for the release, join us on facebook where AliensRL-themed updates have been posted recently, or maybe support the striving ChaosForge and join in on the testing of the Release Candidates!

Just when you thought it was safe… AliensRL 0.8 has been released! Read below for details or check the forum for the ChaosForge announcement. Start downloading from the downloads section now, and don’t forget to come back and donate if you like it!